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Myths
about the Women’s Squad: You have to train 6 days
a week at the club- although a lot of the squad that have rowed this
year have been putting in this much time a lot of rowers can’t commit
to being down the club 6 days a week or train this regularly.
As the squad has grown over the year there is a larger group of individuals
who can commit to on average 4 days training so we can now cater for
people who can’t put as much time in but still want to row competitively.
Depending on what your goals are in terms of competition as
long as you can back these up with the appropriate amount of training
then there are no issues with you joining the squad. We do ergo tests the whole
time- I’m a firm believer in the adage ergos don’t float! We’ve
actually only had four ergo tests this year and although they do form
a part of ranking athletes on their fitness levels this is not the
only consideration. Other factors are ability to move a boat,
availability and level of competition the athlete is aiming for so
we can get people with similar aspirations rowing together. There is no fair assessment
process- this year we have run with a squad ladder which
ranks each rower based on fitness levels (taken from ergo tests and
bleep tests) and technical ability (taken from on the water assessment,
video coaching and race results). This is re-calculated regularly
and shows the athletes where they are ranked over all and by their
preference of side. By providing a transparent selection process
each rower can see why they are where they are in the squad and what
steps they need to take to improve their status. This has the
benefit of pushing the quality of the whole squad upward as each individual
strives to move up the ladder keeping it competitive. You need to be psychotic
and have no social life- if you’ve rowed before you know at some point within
a race you need to suppress the pain even though your heart is trying
to breakthrough your ribcage! However, most of the time it helps
to have balance and listening to your body when you’re over training
or injured. We’ve had the usual niggling injuries and illness
within the squad this year but because we have the squad ladder and
a proper squad system we can take athletes out of training so they
can recover fully whilst giving others the opportunity to come on
and develop experience in their absence. This also applies
to social lives. In a club like Staines most people haven’t
joined to be Olympic athletes so we have to be realistic that people
will have social lives and important family commitments that can’t
be avoided. Again this has been demonstrated over the year by cycling
through athletes who wouldn’t otherwise get a chance to row in a senior
boat but have done so as others are out. It’s important to keep
this balance otherwise the enjoyment of rowing is very quickly lost. Once you’ve signed up that’s
it- being part of the women’s squad if you’ve not rowed in a squad
system before can be a daunting prospect, it is an openly competitive
environment as you would naturally expect of a squad that has a desire
to compete. However, this doesn’t have to be to the detriment
of those wishing to “suck it and see”. All through the year
we have operated an open door policy as individuals have dropped out
or come back into the squad. Leaving the squad for a period
of time doesn’t stop you from coming back, again a phenomena we have
seen a lot over this season and next. You have to know how to
row and scull to a high standard- this year we had a big intake of beginners
from Pubs and Clubs (approximately 20 in total). Faced with
a majority of the squad this year learning new skills in a very short
period of time is a challenge but one that has proved successful as
most of the beginners have stayed with rowing and have won races this
season, competing at Womens’ Henley at one extreme but all have competed
in the head and regatta seasons. Being part of the squad means
obtaining regular coaching both inboard from the cox and third person
from a coach (this includes video coaching). I’m hoping we get
another intake of beginners from Pubs and Clubs this year to help
cement novice rowing in the squad. Novices
will never row with Seniors- because we had a novice heavy squad this year we
initially brought them on rowing together but such is their level
now that we regularly have novice women racing with senior oarswomen.
The only reason we are keeping an arbitrary
line between the two for some races is to hopefully achieve the objective
of winning their novice pot. Over
the winter being novice or lower pointed will be an advantage as it
will bring down the status of a crew giving that crew more potential
for success. Crews will be picked on ability and availability
(being around to practice and around for key races) so if a novice
is more proficient and available more often than a senior rower they
will get picked over the senior rower.
So
who is the Women’s Squad for? It aims to cater for anyone who wants to
train regularly to compete either at Domestic or National level from
Novice right through to Elite. If you think after reading
the above you are interested to know more about rowing in the women’s
squad then please feel free to come along to the meeting on Monday
13th September at the club, please be there for 7pm. If you have any further questions please contact me on sbcwomen@hotmail.com or
07974 774268. |